Of all the people to engage in name-calling, former U.S. senator & Chicago mayoral candidate, Carol Moseley-Braun had to go there. According to the Chicago Tribune, during her appearance at a South Side candidate forum on Sunday, she had taken her opponent, Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins to task for returning to politics after being “missing in action” as parts of the city struggled economically. She said, “Patricia, the reason you didn’t know who I was for the last 20 years is because you were strung out on crack,” adding “I was not strung out on crack. I don’t have a record.” She should have had a record for all the shady financial shenanigans she was mixed up in.

Watkins, a 53-year-old community organizer , has told the Tribune and other media outlets that she used marijuana and cocaine as a teenager for several years. Watkins has said she’s been clean for 32 years. “We have a right to ask people where they’ve been. I didn’t even know she lived in Chicago,” Watkins said today. “I haven’t seen (her) in Springfield or City Hall. I should not be called a crack addict because I said that.” Watkins said she believes Braun’s comments reflect her character. Source: Chicago Tribune

Everyone deserves a second chance if they fall down. Even the vilest person among us can be rehabilitated if they want to. Now if this woman was a murderer and a pedophile, then we are dealing with a different issue. Carol Moseley-Braun is an opportunist, who can’t point to a record of accomplishment in the political career she brags about. I can’t remember one thing she did as senator, except that there was a cloud of suspicion surrounding her on financial issues. So, I guess she would look down on Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama for their drug use. Mrs. Watkins should be applauded for turning her life around. Carole Moseley-Braun is bad for politics and certainly a horrible choice for the people of Chicago.

Comedian & radio show host Steve Harvey’s ex-wife compares herself to a rape victim during appearance on the Tom Joyner Morning Show.

I usually don’t cover celebrities and their drama, but the hot mess playing out in the media between Steve Harvey and his ex-wife Mary is just too good to ignore. Mary Harvey is either a victim of an abusive marriage or she’s just plain crazy. Why would Tom Joyner get involved in all this mess? For ratings? Clearly Steve Harvey and his ex-wife don’t need Tom Joyner. They need Dr. Phil and Judge Judy, and maybe Nancy Grace for the sarcasm. You will recall her recent YouTube diatribes in which she accused her ex-husband of all kinds of crazy things, including cheating her out of her money. What’s telling to me is that he got full custody of their son, not the mother. We all know that courts are more lenient with mothers, so she obviously has some issues why she wasn’t given custody of the boy, unless he tricked her.

Well, earlier today the former Mrs. Steve Harvey tried to mend fences for the sake of her son, Wynton, on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. During her conversation with Joyner, she compared herself to a “rape victim” and basically said allowing Steve Harvey to offer advice to woman, was “like saying to someone who was raped and had not had closure from his attacker that he’s still doing some good.” Those are some serious allegations. I hope she can put her money where her mouth is. She also accused Harvey’s current wife, the former Marjorie Bridges (nee Bridges, Townsend, Woods — the two last names were from her marriages to two big-time drug dealers) as playing a role in the destruction of her marriage. She claims to have emails Steve sent to Bridges with some really graphic comments. Marjorie Harvey is also threatening to sue for defamation of character. Really Marjorie? With Steve Harvey’s money? How much do they expect to get from this woman?

If Mary Harvey cared about anyone else but herself, she wouldn’t have made those YouTube videos. If she cared one iota about her son, she wouldn’t have put him through this drama. Airing your dirty laundry in public won’t get you much sympathy and it won’t solve problems. Why can’t Mary Harvey, Steve Harvey and his new wife take a page out of Patricia, Oprah Winfrey’s newly found sister, who said family business should remain just that. Dogging him out for being a so-called relationship expert won’t solve her problems. This mess should be handled as a private family matter and if he’s perpetrating a major fraud as a relationship expert, then the truth will come out. Steve Harvey — PAY MARY OFF real fast so your “brand” won’t crumble like Tiger Woods because this woman can’t be telling all lies. Mary said the January 2011 issue of Essence magazine was the straw that broke the camel’s back when she saw her name mentioned in an article about Steve. She said she doesn’t want the magazine and Steve Harvey to stop “muddy-up” her name. This is a hot mess and Steve Harvey out to think like a woman and act like a man. Take a page out of the relationship sh*t he’s spewing and stop suing this woman. This won’t solve the problem. Talk to her. Work it out for the sake of the child.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz says Barack Obama “the president who lost Egypt” and saw America’s alliances with the Middle East crumble.

I will concede that the Obama Administration was slow out of the gates in getting in front of this mess in Egypt, one of our staunchest allies. As usual, the right hand had no clue what the left hand was doing. By that I mean Vice President Joe Biden was saying that Hosni Mubarak was no dictator and the country was strong, while President Obama was sounding a little more reserved. I’m not sure how one can remain as a country’s leader for 30 years and not be considered as a dictator. Mubarak is not different from North Korean madman and leader Kim Jong Il who has led his country for decades, but is considered as a dictator (though Mubarak isn’t as crazy or vile).

But does the Obama administration’s slowness rise to the level of saying he lost Egypt? Haaretz seems to think so and compares the fallout in Egypt to Jimmy Carter, who they said will go down in history as “the president who lost Iran.” Haaretz has also added that Barack Obama will also be remembered for losing Turkey and Lebanon, in addition to Egypt and America’s alliances in the Middle East. Isn’t that a little over the top? So, what did former President George Bush lose?

The superficial circumstances are similar. In both cases, a United States in financial crisis and after failed wars loses global influence under a leftist president whose good intentions are interpreted abroad as expressions of weakness. The results are reflected in the fall of regimes that were dependent on their relationship with Washington for survival, or in a change in their orientation, as with Ankara.

America’s general weakness clearly affects its friends. But unlike Carter, who preached human rights even when it hurt allies, Obama sat on the fence and exercised caution. He neither embraced despised leaders nor evangelized for political freedom, for fear of undermining stability.

Obama began his presidency with trips to Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and in speeches in Ankara and Cairo tried to forge new ties between the United States and the Muslim world. His message to Muslims was “I am one of you,” and he backed it by quoting from the Koran. President Hosni Mubarak did not join him on the stage at Cairo University, and Obama did not mention his host. But he did not imitate his hated predecessor, President George W. Bush, with blunt calls for democracy and freedom.

Obama apparently believed the main problem of the Middle East was the Israeli occupation, and focused his policy on demanding the suspension of construction in the settlements and on the abortive attempt to renew the peace talks. That failure led him to back off from the peace process in favor of concentrating on heading off an Israeli-Iranian war. Source: Haaretz

I am a little confused as to why the administration continues to shoot itself in the foot by sitting on the fence when all hell is breaking loose. The BP Gulf oil spill comes to mind. So now President Obama finds himself in another controversy, not of his making. Obama can’t win. If he leans too heavily on Mubarak, then many in the Middle East could say we’re meddling in their affairs. If he sits on the fence and says very little, he’s seen as spineless.

Martin Luther King III and investor group seeking stake of the New York Mets.

Martin Luther King III is part of a group of investors who have set their sights on a stake in the New York Mets and yes, the haters are all out in force commenting on the New York Post and ESPN websites. According to the NY Post, King has teamed up with Mets legend Ed Kranepool, entrepreneur Donn Clendenon Jr., TV executive Larry Meli and a few unnamed investors.

“It’s fitting with the legacy of Jackie Robinson essentially transferring to the Mets; what better place to have African-American ownership than with the Mets,” Meli said, noting that Major League Baseball has no African-American owners. “The time and place are right for it. It just seems to be the right mix of people.” Source: NY Post

Fred Wilpon and son Jeff Wilpon, the Mets chief operating officer, announced Friday their intention to potentially sell 20-25 percent of the team to satisfy any judgment or settlement in a lawsuit brought by the trustee looking to recover money for victims of convicted swindler Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The group including King III reportedly wants to have at least a 50 percent share of the team, which is a complication, since the Wilpons have stated they only intend to sell a minority share. Source: ESPN

So, a black man is part of a group of investors to buy a team and people have issues on the basis of race. You see, when Dr. Bill Cosby expressed some interest in NBC, he was literally laughed at for entertaining such a lofty ambition. If you have some issues about Martin Luther King III purchasing a stake in the team, why not talk about it from a monetary point of view? Why attack the man because of his race? The question I have is where Martin Luther King III got the money from to make such a purchase since the King Center is still in the red and Washington memorial is running low on funds. You see, I’m coming at this purely from a monetary position and as someone who lives in metro-Atlanta and remembers the scandal that ensued over the mismanagement at the King Center for Non-Violent Social Change, I am just wondering out loud where Martin III got this money from.

Here’s a sampling of the comments on the NY Post:

Blondie

Tell MLK III to go back to Atlanta and ruin that baseball team. Where did this guy get the $$$ to buy into anything as expensive as the Mets? I thought that he was a poor preacher man like Al Sharpton. Kranepool has a right to be a part owner of the Mets. He was a part of their glory. Donn Clendenon Jr. is a part of the team by birthright. MLK III has nothing to do with out Mets. Tell him to go back to Georgia and get the heck away from us.

mingdurga

On second thought, this might be a good way to reunite Al Sharpton and Tawana Brawley as 3rd and 1st base coaches on the MLK All American Team.

can’t take it anymore

Black ownership? Is having a piece of the team that important to him for that reason alone? I have a dream too. A dream that I can see another world series at Shea Stadium, I mean Citi-Field, I mean MLK “I Have a Dream Field

From ESPN:

CyyyykSounds like the beginning of a Jesse Jackson style race hustler shakedown…….. cue the “institutionalized racism” accusation any minute now if the Wilpon’s don’t agree to sell.

You see, the King children — Martin III, Dexter & Bernice — have been a big disappointment with all the infighting and mismanagement of their father’s legacy. So, excuse me if I am less than ecstatic about Martin Luther King III making a major purchase, still, to attack him because of his race is just despicable.

UPDATE#1: From the NY Daily News, King III said he may indeed join a group of investors interested in the Mets, but he made it clear that he is not leading the effort and Monday, King’s potential partners were already downplaying his involvement.

Black Ohio lawmakers accuse new governor & former Fox News host John Kasich of lack of diversity with “all-white” cabinet.

A group of black state lawmakers in Ohio are blasting John Kasich over the absence of racial diversity in his cabinet and called on the Senate to reject his appointments until he takes steps to add blacks or Latinos to his leadership team, according to the Columbus Dispatch. You should also note John Kasich had his own show on Fox News a few years ago, so I wouldn’t be overly surprised at his track record with non-whites. After being called out by State Sen. Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) who said of his appointments, “Today in 2011 it feels more like 1811 in the state of Ohio under a governor who just does not get it.” Ouch. His spokeman said he offered two positions to two blacks who turned him down. Er, you can’t tell me in the entire state of Ohio there were only two blacks qualified for a leadership role in his administration. Complete BS.

Not since Democrat Michael DiSalle in 1962 has an Ohio governor had an all-white cabinet. Kasich has made 23 appointments, and a spokesman said he still has two seats to fill – the Departments of Youth Services and Job and Family Services.

“It’s about bringing a perspective. That’s what we want the governor to understand,” said Sen. Charleta B. Tavares, D-Columbus. “He doesn’t walk in our shoes. He hasn’t gone through the struggles many of us have gone through. Even a Republican who happens to be African-American will bring a perspective, a consciousness that he doesn’t have.” Source: Columbus Dispatch

Seems to me John Kasich has a race problem by virtue of his all-white administration in modern-day America. It’s safe to say that it wasn’t solely the white vote that put him in office. If blacks make up 12.1 percent of the population of the state, as a lawmaker states, then why it is so hard for Gov. Kasich to appoint blacks to his administration? Sounds like a little Fox News mentality is influencing his relationship with the black community.

Jamaican-born Bronx pastor Michael Clare charged with repeated rape of church member, starting when she was 12, even impregnating her at 15.

Michael Clare Meeting T.D. James (LOL)

Another snake in the pulpit has been revealed. Michael Clare, the pastor of Bronx-based Harvest Worship Center, was charged with rape Friday for repeatedly having sexual relations with a member of his church, starting when she was 12 years old. Let me interject that Clare is married and has kids. I know he wouldn’t want anyone to engage in such despicable behavior with his kids. I’m surprised his MySpace page is still up, but like disgraced Bishop Eddie L. Long, he may think he can con people into thinking he’s being raked over the coals and is the “victim.”

Michael Clare, the 38-year-old married leader of the Harvest Worship Center in Wakefield, allegedly impregnated the girl, who is now 15, court documents said.

Authorities learned of the abuse in June, when the girl told her parents and police that Clare had sexually preyed on her for years. DNA evidence implicated Clare, prosecutors said. Clare was arrested June 14 on second-degree rape charges, but the grand jury yesterday upped the charges to first-degree rape.

The chrome-domed man of God bills himself on his MySpace page as a “man of great integrity” who is “a paragon, a model of excellence and ideal example of living and preaching the Gospel of Christ.” Clare also is the principal of Harvest Prep, a school run out of the tiny storefront church. Source: NY Daily News

The members of his congregation need to force him out of the leadership position. With the law on their sides, he won’t be standing in front of them in the near future. This sounds a lot like another pastor I blogged about. Paul Lewis, who has a ministry based in Brooklyn and who was born in Jamaica, like this dirtbag, faces rape charges in Jamaica. I’m not sure how that case is progressing, but I hope he gets a dose of justice “Jamaican style.” If you’re from the “no problem mon” island, you will know exactly what I mean by “Jamaican-style” justice. Clare is being held in lieu of $50,000 bond and faces up to 25 years in state prison if convicted.

Julie Powers Schenecker, wife of US military intelligence officer Parker Schenecker, fatally shoots her two teenage children Beau & Calyx.

SHOCK: Julie Powers Schenecker, wife of military intelligence officer Parker Schenecker, , was arrested after she alleged shot and killed her two children. Investigators claim she killed the kids because they “mouthed off” to her. Just imagine the toll this is going to take on her husband, who is with the US Central Command (CENTCOM), who is reportedly on a temporary assignment in the Middle East?

Tampa Police have arrested a New Tampa mother after they say she shot her two teenage children to death Thursday night. Investigators say Julie Powers Schenecker, 50, shot and killed her children with a .38 caliber gun in their home.

Officers went to the home in the Ashton Reserve subdivision around 7:45 Friday morning after the police department received an out-of-state phone call from the suspect’s mother. After first seeing Schenecker outside covered in blood, police found the woman’s son, Beau, 13, in the garage, and her daughter, Calyx, 16, was found in an upstairs bedroom, both fatally wounded. Source: CNN

Thankfully her mother had the foresight to contact the police after she reportedly received a disturbing email from her daughter.

Tawander Simmons accused of robbing Wells Fargo Bank in Lilburn, GA, and taking son Benny Brice & two other teens on heist.

SHAME: Police in Lilburn, Ga., arrested Tawander Simmons, 35, when she robbed a Wells Fargo Bank. What’s equally shocking and shameful is that she took her son, Benny Brice, 17, and two other teens — Glenn Broom, 18 & David Rollins, 17 — to carry out the robbery. Talk about an unusual field trip. I can only wonder what the parents of the other two teens are saying now.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Deputy Chief of Police Bruce Hedley said early Friday, Simmons checked her son and the two other boys, out of Stephenson High School in Stone Mountain just before the robbery.

Hedley said that account was based on what the arrested youths had told officers, but he said the school police later told him that only one of the teens had attended school Friday and then walked out but that the others had skipped.

He said the four went to a Wells Fargo on Rockbridge Road and Lawrenceville Highway for a heist. The suspects were armed with at least one handgun, police said. Surveillance video showed a woman and two men walk into the bank. A witness said they looked ready to steal. Source: WSBTV

Some people should never have the privilege of being parents. Thanks to Tawander Simmons, her son, Benny Brice, is a young thug in the making. People like this mother don’t deserve to be around civilized and decent people.

Why am I not surprised that Glenn Beck is trying to distort the three-fifths clause in the Constitution in regards to blacks in this country? He’s trying to distort the true intention of the “three-fifths” clause to fit his views. He’ll defend the “poor man’s Sarah Palin” because he taught her this garbage. I never thought I would say this, but of the two women, Sarah Palin is the one with some brains. Listen to this fool try to distort the facts:

The three-fifthscompromise was an agreement between Southern and Northern states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, during which the basic framework of the United States was established. Under this compromise, slaves were counted as three-fifths of a human being for the purpose of taxation and representation in Congress. As a result, slave-owners and the Southern states got a deal deal of political clout.

As all compromises do, the three-fifths compromise started as a dispute. Most of the Northern states did not want to count slaves at all, arguing that they should be treated as property, since they didn’t have votes or any other power. The Southern states, however, wanted to count slaves as people so that they would get more representation in Congress, solidifying their political power. The North resisted this, rightly fearing that counting slaves as people would increase the Congressional seats apportioned to the South, thereby making the South extremely formidable.

In the end, two representatives, James Wilson and Roger Sherman, came up with the three-fifths compromise, which was designed to meet the demands of both sides. Recognizing the desire of the South and wanting to reach out to the Southern states to encourage them to ratify, the three-fifths compromise allowed the government to count slaves as partial people, while allaying the fears of the North about Southern power.

Of course, many people in the Northern states kept slaves as well, but the vast majority of slaves in America at the time were working on Southern plantations as agricultural laborers. Under the three-fifths compromise, plantation owners in the South gained considerable political power, which they used to promote their own political agenda and desires.

Once again conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh has stuck his foot in his mouth. His imitation of the Chinese language during a recent speech made by Chinese President Hu has sparked outrage among the Asian-American community, with California state Sen. Leland Yee, leading the charge in demanding an apology from Limbaugh, who seems to think he’s the moral compass of America, with all his flaws. His actions were racist and derogatory, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. He has engaged in race-baiting for as far back as I can remember and he is allowed to get away with it. Yee has rallied civil rights groups calling for a boycott of companies such as Pro Flowers, Sleep Train and Domino’s Pizza that advertise on his syndicated talk show. Misery loves company. I am positive Rush Limbaugh doesn’t have a quarter of the qualifications and expertise the Chinese president possesses.

“The comments that he made – the mimicking of the Chinese language – harkens back to when I was a little boy growing up in San Francisco and those were hard days, rather insensitive days,” Yee said in an interview Thursday. “You think you’ve arrived and all of a sudden get shot back to the reality that you’re a second-class citizen.”

During a Jan. 19 radio program, Limbaugh said there was no translation of the Chinese president’s speech during a visit to the White House. “He was speaking and they weren’t translating,” Limbaugh said. “They normally translate every couple of words. Hu Jintao was just going ching chong, ching chong cha.” He then launched into a 20-second-long imitation of the Chinese leader’s dialect. The next day, Limbaugh said he “did a remarkable job” of imitating China’s president for someone who doesn’t know a language spoken by more than 1 billion people. “Back in the old days, Sid Caesar, for those of you old enough to remember, was called a comic genius for impersonating foreign languages that he couldn’t speak,” Limbaugh said. “But today the left says that was racism; it was bigotry; it was insulting. And it wasn’t. It was a service.” Source

It’s high time people in this country take a stand against the inflammatory and derogatory rhetoric emanating from the airwaves from conservative radio show hosts, namely Rush Limbaugh and Mike Savage, to name a few. Yee is also fearful of his life, after receiving death threats at his California offices. In the aftermath of the massacre in Tucson, in which Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head, and six people died, no one is taking these threats lightly. Let me end by saying that I have been a vocal critic of Rush Limbaugh and others, but this isn’t the first time he has insulted other races, particularly blacks, but I haven’t heard one word demanding an apology from the Asian-American civil rights leaders, but now they are dealing with this bigot and want all our support. Yeah, I’ll support them in this because Limbaugh went too far, but it’s time we all united against such bigotry, not only when a particular race or ethnicity is slighted.